Highest Bidder

“Reports are not the truth. How could you even think that about your Dad? He loved you, Freya. No matter what anybody says, that man loved you and I don’t want you to go poking around all that now. It’s in the past, Freya. Leave it there.”

“Mom.”

“Please darling, don’t talk to me about this again,” she said, rising to her feet. “Let’s just figure a way to get our finances in order and move on.”

Things were changing so quickly in my life. I’ve had to grow up really fast. I went back to my room and sent Brent a text.

I accept your arrangement.

Freya

The bailiffs did not turn up and I went back to Uni the next day. Everything had seemingly returned to normal in our life, but for some reason it felt like the calm before the storm. I was edgy, my thoughts constantly swirling around what I would say and do when I met Brent again. Of course, I was excited about being with him again, but aggravated that our time would be on his terms. There was no happy ending to our relationship. I was like an itch to him. He was to scratch it until it was no longer itchy.

Then I would be gone.

When my phone rang and Mom calling came up on the screen it was like that first dark cloud that blew on the sky before a storm. She never called me while I was at school. I quickly excused myself from the circle of conversation with my team and went to huddle in a corner. “Mom?”

“Do you know what's going on?” She sounded agitated and distraught.

“What do you mean?” I asked, going into panic mode.

“I’m outside the boutique right now and I’ve been locked out. Some men came over and said that my lease had been taken over and the store has been rented to someone else.”

“They can’t do that!”

“Apparently, the one time they can do that is if you fall back on your rent. I don’t know why the landlord didn’t remind me for the money. He’s always done it in the past and I’ve always immediately paid it whenever he did. I just don’t understand. I have the money now, but they’ve given me a week to get rid of my stuff. I don’t know—Hey! What are you doing?” she screamed frantically at someone.

In the background chaos, I could hear a man’s voice.

I tried my best to hear what he was saying to her, but his voice didn’t carry well. Then she came back on the phone.

“What is it, Mom?”

“I don’t know what the hell is going on, Freya?” she cried. “Who is doing this? I know it is not some random person wanting to rent this shop. The shop two doors down is empty. They could have taken that. Someone wants to ruin me.”

“They didn’t tell you who took over the lease?”

“Of course not. The man said that you're aware of what's happening? What the hell does that mean?”

My stomach swirled and tightened.

“Freya? Is that true? Do you know what’s happening?”

“I’m on my way,” I said and ended the call.

The moment I found a taxi, I settled in. Then I placed a call to the person I suspected would be behind something like this.

A few moments later, Judi Mirren’s silky voice came through the receiver, “Freya,” she greeted in high spirits.

Her voice seemed to crack a splitting headache down my skull. “Do you have anything to do with the closure of my mother’s store?”

“I thought that I’d help you kick start the decision to leave London. I figured it would help you sell the idea to your mother. If she didn’t have anything keeping her here, then it’d be easier for you to —”

“Are you fucking out of your mind?” I screamed. My hands pounded on the seat as I exploded in fury. “How dare you? How fucking … dare you?”

“Are you done?” she asked coolly.

“We’re human beings,” I said in disbelief. “How the heck can you do this? How can you toy with people this way?”

“Freya, I warned you. You’re the one toying with me. I’m happy that I was finally able to get my message across, but this is just the start. I can see your mother right now, and she’s quite … well … frenzied. I hope you won’t cause her heart to completely break by allowing her to come to know of things that she should not. Let me know when you’ve made your decision.” She ended the call then.

For a second I stared at the phone, then I called her back.

“That was fast,” she said smugly.

“Judi, you may be a good actress, but you are a bad judge of character. I’m not some bimbo you can push around. I am in a relationship with Brent and guess what? I’m going to make that information public and you’re going to no longer exist in Brent’s world. This is what you’re scared of, isn’t it? Go ahead, tell my mother all about my involvement with Brent, and how I came into my nest egg. I don’t give a fuck anymore, but what you want of him, I’ll ensure that you will never be able to get. Oh, you know what else? Go ahead and keep that shitty shop. I’ll use my nest egg to get my mother another one.”

She laughed then. “How silly you are. Brent will never claim you as his own, so don’t worry about the publicity. I won’t expose it either, because the last thing I want is the world knowing how he bought you, but your mother however will find out.”